Chairman of India's Sahara Group Subrata Roy gestures as he addresses a press conference in Kolkata on November 29, 2013. An Indian regulator froze the bank accounts of two companies of the giant Sahara group in February 2013, after it failed to obey a court order to repay billions of dollars illegally collected from investors. Sahara, a household name in India and sponsor of the national cricket team, raised 240 billion rupees ($4.4 billion) in illegal bond sales to 30 million small investors between 2008 and 2011. AFP PHOTO/Dibyangshu SARKAR (Photo credit should read DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images)

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Morning Wrap is Huffpost India's selection of interesting news and opinion from the day's newspapers.

Main News

The government as well as the Delhi Police have swung into action to censor the broadcast of a documentary by an Israeli-born director that shows one of the perpetrators of the Nirbhaya rape case as expressing no remorse for his actions. His comments have already made news on several media outlets days before the documentary is to be screened on Women's day.

The Narendra Modi government faced its first defeat in Parliament on Tuesday when an amendment to the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address moved by a combative Opposition was passed in the Rajya Sabha, 118-57. The going in the Lok Sabha too seemed tough with the Opposition closing ranks and demanding frequent divisions, or voting, on amendments that it moved on two of the Bills -- on Insurance and Mines and Minerals -- that are to replace ordinances.

India and Pakistan made some tepid moves to renew bi-lateral relations with officials saying that no "breakthroughs" were on the cards.
It could be the greater devolution of funds to states or something more ominous, but Budget documents reveal that both the renewable energy- and environment-ministries have had their budgets slashed by 68% and 25% from last year.

Off The Front Page

The petulant ghost of the late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, may be mightily displeased with Tamil Nadu-based iVoice Enterprises, a phone maker who has challenged the American company's monopoly over the 'iPhone' name. iVoice plans to sell phones by the brand name 'iFon' in India.
While the BJP and PDP alliance in Jammu Kashmir is already facing friction, allies from other parties in the coalition such as Peoples Conference leader Sajjad Lone, an ally of the BJP, are complaining about the ministerial portfolios allotted to them. Lone apparently considers the Science & Technology and Animal Husbandry portfolios, allotted to him, to be "an embarrassment".
The swine flu outbreak across various states in India, has so rattled state administrations that they have started to issue specific directives discouraging people from "hugging" and "touching" during Holi festivities this week.
While awarding a 25-month jail term to a 35-year-old Jasbir Chauhan for firing in the air at his friend's wedding, leading to the death of the groom's uncle, a city-court judge in Delhi said that policy makers should discuss ways to check ostentation at Indian weddings and contemplate measures such as a 'Guest Control Order' and a 'One-dish Rule' for wedding functions.
The government is working on changing the law to allow ayurveda- and homeopathy- practitioners to conduct non-invasive procedures on women seeking to terminate pregnancies. This comes independently of a study in a leading journal that says maternal health in India is much worse than previously thought as more than 40 percent of women are underweight when they begin pregnancy.

Essential HuffPost

Kaizad Kotwal pleads with Jerry Seinfeld to cancel his India tour for the sake of free speech
It's banned in Maharashtra. So where can the intrepid beef-eater go in India?

Opinion

Gautam Bhatia is scathing in The Hindu that when he rues that India's "second rate copycat status"--borne out by its shoddy commitment to durable infrastructure--will never make it a truly global player.
In The Hindu, Aravind Rajagopal says that Hindu nationalism has reinvented itself, combining pro-business policies with the rhetoric of lower caste empowerment.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, in The Indian Express, says that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent gambits-- the Budget and the alliance with the PDP in Kashmir-- "are, in their own different ways, a delicate attempt to take Indian politics into uncharted waters."